A difficult problem in the care of a disabled person is helping the person do the daily array of routine tasks. Prominent among these tasks are toileting, bathing, eating, and moving from place-to-place. Many disabled persons live at home and are cared for my an elderly family member, usually female. The care giver is not equipped to lift the patient and the inability to do so may necessitate home aids, or alternately, placement of the disabled person in a nursing home.
Toileting assistance is especially demoralizing and degrading for the disabled person and frequently is disgusting to the care giver. Humiliations to the patient include lack of privacy, and the necessity for assistance with each mundane need. This contributes to the development of depression, so common in home care patients.
The most common method of managing a bowel movement for a disabled person is through use of a bedpan. Assistance is normally required in getting the patient properly positioned on the bedpan and balance is difficult. The sitting position employed with a bedpan compresses the buttocks interfering with the normal anal muscle function. In place of a bedpan, the patient can be helped or lifted from the bed and positioned on a bedside commode. This requires considerable assistance which is not always available. In place of manual assistance, canvas slings have been used with hydraulic lifts and davits to raise the patient out of the bed, swing the patient through the air and lower the patient onto the bedside commode. However, it is difficult to get the patient into and out of the sling, and this process requires a substantial period of time, which may not be rapid enough to prevent soiling of the bed, sling, or other equipment.